M3 - Third Year

The third year (M3) consists of clinical clerkships, in which students rotate through various specialties, spending two to eight weeks in each. The clerkships include family medicine, internal medicine and subspecialties, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology and subspecialties, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery and subspecialties.

Within these clerkships, students may choose specific rotations (cardiology during the medicine rotation, for example), according to their particular interests. Through the clinical exposure, students develop clinical skills and accumulate knowledge that is specific to the specialty areas and general to the practice of medicine. Students are also given elective opportunities

Though much of the M3 year takes places in University hospitals and clinics, students also experience other perspectives of practicing medicine. Two weeks of the family medicine rotation are spent at the Mississippi Baptist Health Center in Jackson, while the remaining four weeks are spent with family medicine physician preceptors across the state. Students also spend time at the G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center during several of the core and subspecialty rotations,

While developing clinical skills, students see the interworking of each department, which helps them determine which facet of medicine is right for them.